The first Geekbench 6 benchmark result for the new Mac Pro surfaced today, providing a closer look at the M2 Ultra chip's CPU performance in the desktop tower.
The result lists a single-core score of 2,794 and a multi-core score of 21,453, compared to 1,378 and 10,390 for the highest-end Intel-based Mac Pro with a 28-core Xeon W processor, a configuration that started at $12,999. This means the new Mac Pro is over twice as fast as the fastest Intel-based model, and given that all configurations include the M2 Ultra chip, this performance can be had for a much lower $6,999.
Mac14,8 = 2023 Mac Pro
Unsurprisingly, these scores are virtually identical to those that surfaced for the Mac Studio with the M2 Ultra chip a few days ago. The new Mac Pro is aimed at customers who need PCI Express expansion, but anyone else should consider the Mac Studio for their desktop computer needs, as it can be configured with the M2 Ultra chip for $3,999.
The new Mac Pro has the same overall design as the 2019 model, but it no longer supports graphics cards and does not have user-upgradeable RAM due to Apple silicon's unified memory. The computer launched today following pre-orders last week.
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec).
The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps.
More features and changes will follow in future ...
Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions.
iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet.
The update will likely be released by the end of next week.
Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year.
The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works.
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings.
iOS 26.4 will...
Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump.
First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...
Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more.
With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year.
Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...
Friday October 17, 2025 7:10 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The first alleged benchmark result for the M5 chip in the new 14-inch MacBook Pro has surfaced, allowing for some performance comparisons.
Based on a single unconfirmed result uploaded to the Geekbench 6 database today, the M5 chip has pulled off an impressive feat. Specifically, the chip achieved a score of 4,263 for single-core CPU performance, which is the highest single-core score that...
And with that, any reason to get this over the Mac Studio is now gone. There is now ZERO reason at all to buy a giant Mac Pro over the smaller Studio
"But the Mac Pro can be rack mountable!"
So can the Mac Studio, even moreso since it's considerably smaller so you can mount a lot more
"But I need the Mac Pro for the PCIE to put my BlackMagic cards in!"
Do you? Do you really? Because BlackMagic PCIE is slowly on it's way out as there's external rack mounted boxes that are performing better than the PCIE cards did.
Even Neil Parfitt, the audio studio pro who famously unboxed a fully specced Rack Mount Mac Pro, is saying the M2 Ultra Mac Pro is kinda redundant
So, compared to the old Mac Pro (on this one test), you're getting a much needed CPU upgrade.
The problem with getting excited about this is here is GB's averages for the i9-13900KS:
I don't even know what Xeon to compare to as trying to navigate those was a bit of a mess, but the 13900KS with 4 less cores and less threads is offering a SIGNIFICANT improvement in CPU performance.
Most of my experience with Mac Pro users have been people who rely on CPU performance above all. Data sciences running simulations, for example. The limitation of 192GB of RAM over the previous Mac Pro's 1.5TB combined with a better, but still not top of the line CPU makes me think the Mac Pro wasn't supposed to be this way. For all intents and purposes, it's a Mac Studio with internal PCIe. The amount of people who want a Studio with some external cards seems like an extremely small portion of the people who were buying Mac Pros. I feel like most customers at this point would either just invest into the Mac Studio as a much more compact and space saving workstation, or they would've moved onto custom Linux and Windows builds with these better Intel CPUs (provided they aren't using macOS exclusive software).
I feel like with TB4 that many of these PCIe cards outside of graphics cards can reach their full potential as well.
If you're someone who ends up buying a Mac Pro for a reason other than "I need macOS/macOS software", I'd be really curious as to why the Pro over the Studio or a more modular Intel/AMD PC.
